1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a method and system for measuring packaging effectiveness based on video-based analysis of people in the vicinity of a plurality of package concepts, by measuring the response of people to the different packaging concepts, wherein the quantified response measurement shows the ability of the packaging concepts to attract, engage and motivate people to purchase, and whereby the video-based analysis comprises behavior analysis, demographic analysis, and emotion change detection in response to the package effectiveness.
2. Background of the Invention
There have been prior attempts for evaluating the effectiveness of packaging. U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,703 of Hutchinson et al. (hereinafter Hutchinson) disclosed a method for measuring a subject's eye movement and pupil diameter when exposed to visual stimuli for identifying which packaging arouses people's interest. This method includes a presentation device that stimulates the subject with various pictures, an eye-looking detector to identify where the subject looks, and a computer and storage device to correlate and record the lookpoints on the image and construct a graph of the lookpoints and the measured pupil diameters. Hutchinson's method of showing a picture to identify the impact of packaging on people is very rudimentary, and cannot accurately pinpoint the most effective packaging concept because the evaluation is done in isolation, in a lab setting. The effectiveness of packaging should be measured in a retail setting to identify the relative effectiveness of a package among various competitive packages. Moreover, this method cannot involve large sample sizes due to the evaluation being conducted in a lab setting, making the approach inadequate for accurately assessing the impact of a package.
Several companies like Decision Analyst Inc., employ Internet-based screening studies for identifying the effectiveness of packaging. This method involves recruiting qualified respondents from the Internet panels to evaluate package design. Respondents view one package at a time beginning with a package's front panel and later viewing the other panels. A series of questions are fielded to the respondent after viewing the package, and the answers are coded for analysis and interpretation. There are some concerns about using this technique to gain insight on packaging: (i) the size and ability of a computer monitor can alter the size, color and clarity of images on the package, making it difficult, if not impossible, to accurately assess the impact; (ii) evaluating a package in isolation without considering the way packages are laid out in a retail setting could distort the effectiveness measure of a package, thus making the approach non-realistic; (iii) as the respondents are part of a recruited panel, the evaluation can be biased leading to faulty conclusions about the effectiveness of a package; and (iv) the sample size is limited because of the cost involved in acquiring information. However, the present invention evaluates the package in a retail setting, thus providing an accurate assessment of the package with regard to its competitors. In addition, the behavior of all shoppers in front of the package is automatically tracked and analyzed resulting in a more systematic evaluation. Identifying the behavior of all the shoppers that view the package provides insights from the entire population instead of a sample, making the evaluation more accurate.
Companies like Perception Research Services, Inc., employ mobile eye-tracking units to determine the effectiveness of packaging. This method requires a shopper to wear a head-mounted eye-tracking unit that records each person's focal points as he or she shops. The videotapes are manually analyzed to understand each shopper's involvement with specific packages. This method of evaluation is cumbersome since it requires the shopper to wear an apparatus on his or her head. Not many shoppers would opt to wear the apparatus, resulting in a very small sample size. In addition, the cost associated with such an exercise will result in a limited sample. The technique is not very scalable as it requires a manual observer to view the video tapes for analyzing and interpreting the data. Since the shopper sample is part of a recruited panel, the information obtained about the effectiveness of a package can be biased. On the contrary, the present invention employs automated technologies for analyzing the behavior of shoppers in front of the package, resulting in an unbiased analysis. The automation also aids in understanding the effectiveness of a package from a large sample size, making the evaluation more systematic and accurate.